The new face of healthcare and why patients should care
We have a unique opportunity in this country to reduce healthcare costs and improve care at the same time. The only way we are going to do this is to have a physician-led effort to integrate care across a population. This is something hospitals, doctors and payers have never done. By payers I mean Medicare and insurance companies – those who pay the bills.
Integrated healthcare or “coordinated” healthcare means not just focusing on the inpatient stage, or rehabilitative stage or hospice stage, but looking at the entire spectrum of care and to trying to prevent illness before it happens. The typical relationship that patients today have with doctors involves the “What can I do for you?” mentality. What prescription can I write you? What services can I provide you? And the more the better. Patients expect this and doctors and hospitals get paid for it.
What I am describing is a different world. A shift to an environment where patients are seen during less acute stages. Where patients are educated earlier and more completely about health conditions. It involves more of an emphasis on preventative care.
Very few hospitals are operating like this now. Patients expect that an array of services will forever be at their fingertips. But volume of services is not the answer. One more stress test, one more prescription, one more MRI is not always best – and in some cases can even be harmful. You have to change the way the money flows and change patients’ mindsets. Not an easy task.
So, you might be asking, what does this all mean for me, the patient? Bundled healthcare payments and accountable care systems will essentially help to force these changes by revamping the way doctors and hospitals are paid for the care they deliver. This change will encourage health providers to look at patients in a different way and to involve you, the patient, more in your own care.
Essentially it is about helping to ensure the right care, at the right time, in the right way. Who can argue with that?
Kester Freeman blogs regularly at Action for Better Healthcare.
